It was bad enough that in overall voting, Republican Michael Steele, Maryland's lieutenant governor, lost to Democratic Rep. Ben Cardin by almost 10 percent. Similarly, former Pittsburgh Steelers football star Lynn Swann, who would have been Pennsylvania's first black governor, lost overall by 21 percent. And Ken Blackwell, infamous as the elections supervisor who presided over voter suppression in Ohio, lost his governor's race by nearly 24 percent.

Yet this was about more than the three black Republicans who were touted as a new face for the party. Because despite all the faith-based appeals with money and programs for black churches, despite the calls from myriad pulpits to stand by President Bush and the GOP in the name of patriotism or religious solidarity, the high-profile defeats of black candidates by black voters was astounding. Mr. Swann, for example garnered a microscopic 13 percent of the black vote -- less, even, than Charlie Crist's roughly 19 percent in Florida. Mr. Blackwell was soundly defeated with just 20 percent, and Mr. Steele polled only 25 percent from blacks.

In the coming weeks and months, I plan to write quite a bit about blacks and the Republican Party. For now, I want to send a shout-out to J.C. and his barely discernible circle of fellow illusionists (and here):